Identifying cars as an import

Barr

Hi All

I am just wondering is there somewhere you can check if a car is an import.

If you have the reg and don’t want to pay for a full history ?



Thanks
Barr

biko

All cars in Ireland are imported.
Imported from UK or Japan? Privately?

R.O.R

Generally, imports will have a very high registration number for the year / county in comparison to other cars - even before the stupid import registration system was introduced you could guess whether cars were imports based on the number on the plate.

Not a foolproof system, especially on 08's where a lot were imported new for the new VRT system, but gives an idea of a rough number to look at.

For Cork reg's it's anything over:

08 - 22,477
09 - 8,543
10 - 12,845
11 - 12,793
12 - 10,986
131 - 7,713
132 - 2,842
141 - 9,875
142 - 4,484

Barr

R.O.R wrote: »

Generally, imports will have a very high registration number for the year / county in comparison to other cars - even before the stupid import registration system was introduced you could guess whether cars were imports based on the number on the plate.

Not a foolproof system, especially on 08's where a lot were imported new for the new VRT system, but gives an idea of a rough number to look at.

For Cork reg's it's anything over:

08 - 22,477
09 - 8,543
10 - 12,845
11 - 12,793
12 - 10,986
131 - 7,713
132 - 2,842
141 - 9,875
142 - 4,484

Thanks ROR , what about Dublin reg's ? do you know what they go up to.

jprboy

Barr wrote: »

Thanks ROR , what about Dublin reg ? do you know what they go up to.

Anything from 120,000 upwards.

Not sure if that applies to all years, though

Barr

Barr wrote: »

Thanks ROR , what about Dublin reg's ? do you know what they go up to.

Any Dublin reg over 120,000 is definitely an import but this was only introduced relatively recently.

smash

Check the tag on the seatbelt. It should state the month and year the car was produced. I'm not sure if it states the country of origin where it was created, or where it was to be first registered. Either way, a quick car history check will tell you.

slimjimmc

http://www.motorcheck.ie/ will tell you for free. Just punch in the reg.

R.O.R

Dublin Reg's:

08 - 68,945
09 - 28,110
10 - 36,770
11 - 41,338
12 - 39,922
131 - 25,534
132 - 12,847
141 - 29,617
142 - 18,407

Barr

slimjimmc wrote: »

http://www.motorcheck.ie/ will tell you for free. Just punch in the reg.

Afraid not any more

Henry Ford III

Mph speedo, and/or lhd?

jprboy

slimjimmc wrote: »

http://www.motorcheck.ie/ will tell you for free. Just punch in the reg.

Barr wrote: »

Afraid not any more

It worked for me on our UK import when I tried it earlier this morning

joujoujou

It works on UK imports. Unfortunately not on Jap imports.

Gazzmonkey

A UK import would have a mph speedo, UK stamps in the service book and very big reg plate number.... A Jap import would have a square rear plate, yellow fog lights & the indicator stalk is on the right side. not sure if this applies to every single make & model ever made but they are clues that never steered me wrong before.

Cee-Jay-Cee

joujoujou wrote: »

It works on UK imports. Unfortunately not on Jap imports.

A Japanese import is usually very easy to recognise as they'll generally gave smaller rear number plate holder, the speedo will only go to 180kmph and a lot of them actually look different to their Irish counterpart (different grilles, rear lights, no fog light on 99.99% of them etc)

La Fenetre

One way of identifying them is their condition, often they are in a lot better nick than an Irish motor (Yes you will get exceptions) Also they usually have a better spec and more extras (Yes you will get exceptions)

millington

Gazzmonkey wrote: »

A UK import would have a mph speedo, UK stamps in the service book and very big reg plate number.... A Jap import would have a square rear plate, yellow fog lights & the indicator stalk is on the right side. not sure if this applies to every single make & model ever made but they are clues that never steered me wrong before.

Wrong, most pre-06 cars have MPH speedos whether UK or Irish. Not all Jap imports have square plates or yellow fog lights and not all have odd side stalks. 10 minutes removes yellow fog lights or square plates and another 10 fits them to an identical UK spec car but I would never judge off those aspects alone.

I had a Civic with yellow fogs, square plates and even KMH clocks but it was actually an Irish car originally.

Gazzmonkey

millington wrote: »

Wrong, most pre-06 cars have MPH speedos whether UK or Irish. Not all Jap imports have square plates or yellow fog lights and not all have odd side stalks. 10 minutes removes yellow fog lights or square plates and another 10 fits them to an identical UK spec car but I would never judge off those aspects alone.

I had a Civic with yellow fogs, square plates and even KMH clocks but it was actually an Irish car originally.

No need to be an asshole

I said they were clues, not facts

millington

Gazzmonkey wrote: »

No need to be an asshole

I said they were clues, not facts

Sorry mate didn't mean to be so harsh:D

joujoujou

Gazzmonkey wrote: »

A UK import would have a mph speedo, UK stamps in the service book and very big reg plate number.... A Jap import would have a square rear plate, yellow fog lights & the indicator stalk is on the right side. not sure if this applies to every single make & model ever made but they are clues that never steered me wrong before.

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

A Japanese import is usually very easy to recognise as they'll generally gave smaller rear number plate holder, the speedo will only go to 180kmph and a lot of them actually look different to their Irish counterpart (different grilles, rear lights, no fog light on 99.99% of them etc)

And obviously all of these would be listed on a motorcheck site I refferred to?

Especially OP asked:

Barr wrote: »

[...]

I am just wondering is there somewhere you can check if a car is an import.

If you have the reg and don’t want to pay for a full history ?

[...]

Donnelly117

Barr wrote: »

Afraid not any more

Works on my car, which i imported from the UK earlier in the year.